Normally, she felt a great deal of pride in her work, loving the plants that she raised and knowing that her “babies” were superior, healthier. But in this kind of corporate environment, she still felt…awkward. Amid the ladies who knew how to elegantly walk into a room in heels and speak on just about any subject, how to sway their hips so that a man took a second look, Hayden felt like a schoolgirl playing dress-up.
Lifting her chin, she shook off her silly thoughts. She shouldn’t concern herself with someone else’s opinion. She knew who she was. Deep down inside, she was a good person. She didn’t lie, cheat or steal. She loved to read anything she could get her hands on and she cared about the world and her community. At the end of the day, being a good person was all one could ask, right? Knowing how to buy the perfect dress was not her priority.
Shake it off, girl!
Viktor’s hands crumbled the note his assistant had given him. She was here. The gorgeously defiant, beautiful woman from the plant nursery was waiting for him in his office. Storming out of the meeting without any explanation didn’t concern him. His second in command could take charge. Nothing else mattered because…Hayden Ferrant was in his office.
The woman had haunted his dreams over the past thirty days. He’d thought of her too many times, smiling over the stubborn tilt of her jaw which was such a contradiction to her adorable nose and her soft, full lips.
Walking down the hallway, he accepted that he was more interested in this woman because she’d defied him, threw his offer to buy her land in his face. Yes, she was lovely. But he had been with many beautiful women over his lifetime. They were always around, always more than willing. But Hayden Ferrant…chert! She was one of a kind. Smart, unconsciously sexy and independent to a fault. Despite her lack of creature comforts, she had scoffed at his offer.
Stepping through the door, he watched the delicate beauty walk around his office, amazed by the innate elegance in her movements. He was fascinated. What was it about this woman? From the first moment he’d met her, Viktor knew that he’d acted out of character. Oh, he was still a bastard towards the woman, but in different ways than how he treated his business competitors. With the competition, he crushed them.
As he watched, she smoothed her hands down over her incredible hips and he almost growled with the desire to do that himself.
How the hell could she look so elegant in a dress that was two sizes too big for her finely boned figure? Her hair looked…soft even though it was pinned up in what might have been an elegant twist, but soft, wisps of dark curls escaped, gently framing her lovely features. Her beauty wasn’t tied up in superficial accoutrements. Her elegance and self-confidence was just who she was.
That sense of self was what made her so…alluring. Enticing.
Beautiful.
Pulling himself out of his contemplation of her figure, he closed the door to his office and walked purposefully towards his desk. “Ms. Ferrant. I thought we’d concluded our business during our last conversation,” he said conversationally. His hand indicated one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. “To what do I owe this visit today, then?”
As he came around to sit in the big, leather chair, Viktor was once again shocked by the beauty of her eyes. Those lashes! Long, dark and thick, those lashes framed eyes that belonged to a cat, he thought. A mischievous, adorable, sexy cat. And those lips! Damn, his body was contemplating what she might taste like, feeling those lips against his mouth as she kissed him back.
She blinked at him and all thoughts of sexy cats and purring kittens vanished. There was a vulnerability there that captured his attention. Gone was the confident woman who had basically told him to go to hell last month when he’d offered to buy her house and farmland. At this moment, as she tried to hide her vulnerability from him, and failed, all of his previously non-existent protective instincts kicked into high gear.
Those shockingly blue eyes “I was wondering if the offer to buy my family’s land and house was still available,” she explained.
Viktor watched with a fascination that bordered on fury as she licked her lips. Was she doing that on purpose? Was she trying to sexually torment him?